FACTOR, SOCAN, SAC and Musicians = The Ultimate Musicians Workshop in Windsor

FACTOR, SOCAN, S.A.C. and Musicians = The Ultimate Musicians Workshop in Windsor

A quick note: If you have a chance to attend one of these workshops in your area, don’t hum and ha, just DO IT, you will be glad you did.

Well yesterday, I took the plunge and thought, I need to see what has changed and happened in the music industry since I was in the business of music 20 some odd years ago. One thing I realized is that music never changes, it still comes from the heart.

Musicians from all genres, producers, record labels, agents, managers, lawyers and even bloggers (me, lol) came from all over Ontario to our little hub in Windsor at Walkerville Theatre to enjoy a jam packed day, of what else but, learning the inside ropes to the music industry.

Please take the time to click on the links and learn more about all that were involved and how they might be able to assist your future music ventures.

The Ultimate Musicians Workshop was hosted by Blackburn Radio which is The Rock 95.1 am and 100.7 fm - Canada's Rock Station and 96.7 CHYR fm - Windsor/Essex County best for news and music mix. If you haven't tuned into these radio stations yet, now is the time to listen to music you want to hear (and they also have great contests ;).

We started at 9:30 am, where hundreds (yes you heard right) of artists of all genres and such came in from all over Ontario. There were musicians as far away as Cambridge, Sarnia, London and all over the Windsor - Chatham Kent corridor. First off was an amazing woman named Heather Ostertag - President and CEO of FACTOR who explained what The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talents on Recording was all about. If you haven't heard about FACTOR and what they might be able to do to assist Canadian Artists/Musicians then you really need to check it out. Krista Culp - Communications Manager was in the background making sure all the musicians were getting signed up for demo evaluations and the open mic which started at 7:00pm. As Heather explained how Factor.ca helps musicians with almost anything from getting your first demo out, press kits to touring, she explained how a "jury" critics the submissions. Out of 3051 submissions last year, FACTOR assisted more than 1400 artists (a whooping 46%, amazing). (Just a reminder to Krista about the jury coming to Windsor in May :) Heather brought up a special guest, Jeff Burrows former Tea Party drummer to explain how FACTOR assisted The Tea Party touring Australia and getting the International exposure that helped make them a success. There were 4 mic's going to all times taking questions, so many were answered.

Wow what a morning that was jam packed with all the info you needed. Lunch Time :)




1:00 and now SOCAN takes the stage with Dan Kershaw - SOCAN Moderator, Barry Rueger - Community Media.com, Rod Martens - Program Director of The Rock and Anya Wilson - Publicity, Promotions and Radio Promoter. This amazing panel explained the in's and out's of radio play, how to get heard and royalties for your songs. Rod (private radio) and Barry (community radio) explained the differences in what gets played on their stations, Anya explained how she gets your tracks to the radio stations and Dan explained how SOCAN can help you get to radio play, royalties and so much more.

Wow, break time. Have to absorb all that information.

2:40 was time for SAC - Songwriters Association of Canada to take the stage and critic some demos of the many musicians that were in the audience. Don Quarels was the representative from SAC as they announced the panel that would critic the artists. The panel consisted of Anya Wilson - Anya Wilson Promotion and Publicity, Daniel Victor - Never Ending White Lights, Jamie Warren - Country Performer and Corey Robertson - Programming from 96.7 CHYR. These 4 gave tips and tricks to the budding musicians that would help and improve the airplay of their demos. Amazing talent we have in Southern Ontario. Bravo to all that got critiqued :)

Little break time :)

4:45 was time for Daniel Victor and Jamie Warren to take the stage and play some acoustic tunes (and they threw in a piano tune or two as well). Although Daniel had some technically difficulty with his guitar and used Jamie's, these two amazing different genres of music went song by song and explained what, why and who influenced them on their writing. They answered many questions while performing and all that were in attendance I am sure went away with the urge to write their next tune. Daniel explained that when he makes writes his songs, he turns them into a production which makes it hard for him to play live. The songs he did play were amazing. Jamie has a new cd coming out on April 2/08 and shared a few songs off his new cd which he said was his most passionate songwriting to date. They literally had to ask Daniel and Jamie to "get off the stage" at 6:45 so they could set up for OPEN MIC.

Even shorter break time, lol

7:00 and now the fun begins :) Open Mic was amazing with some of these performers appearing on stage for the first time. Once the jitters were all over and all the songs were played, I am sure a good time was had by all.



I want to send out some special acknowledgements - One to the amazing staff at Blackburn radio that did an awesome job even through some of the technical difficulties, the show went on without a hitch. Also from The Rock - Community Relations Director, Windsor - Lori Baldassi was in attendance helping.

To Glen (you know who you are, lol) who is now the Regional person to set up Songwriting Workshops in Windsor. They will be held at the Kildare House and he said they should be starting in about a month. I lost him in the crowd so I hope he reads this and e-mails me :) so I can keep you posted on these amazing workshops to come:)

All the kids from Kids Alliance you did a wonderful job helping, serving the food and making sure everyone was taken care of.

Tim Horton's, Roma Pizza, Subway and whomever paid for all these wonderful treats that kept us fed all day.

Thank you to FACTOR, SOCAN, SAC, Heather Ostertag, Krista Culp (don't forget the jury, lol), Daniel Victor, Jamie Warren, Anya Wilson, Barry Rueger, Jeff Burrows, Dan Kershaw, Don Quarels, all the people behind the scenes, the musicians, artists and anyone else I might have missed.

Please take the time to click on the links to find out what you need to know about getting your music out there :)


I hope that all enjoyed and learned as much as I did. One thing I realized in the 20 some odd years since I took business in music and music engineering is that music is still music although we have went from albums and cassettes to cd’s and dvd’s. Makes you wonder what changes we have in store in the next 20 years.

Did I have an amazing day? Did I learn anything? Did I chat with some of these amazing musicians?

YES TO ALL and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

To all the amazing artists that were at The Ultimate Musicians Workshop that I never had a chance to talk to please take the time to add yourself to my friends list on myspace at http://.www.myspace.com/gjkpromotions if you don’t have a myspace then please drop me a comment on this blog with your website J

Remember I do check out and listen to all music that I receive for my Artist of the Day blog so keep those requests coming ;)


http://www.blackburnradio.com/
http://www.canadasrock.ca/
http://www.chyr.com/
http://www.factor.ca/
http://www.myspace.com/jeffburrows
http://www.myspace.com/theteaparty
http://www.socan.ca/
http://www.community-media.com/
http://www.anyawilson.com/
http://www.songwriters.ca/
http://www.myspace.com/neverendingwhitelights
http://www.myspace.com/jamiewarrenmusic
http://www.myspace.com/ryankidsalliance